Campaign targeting chronic disease treatment launched

A campaign promoting family doctors' treatment of patients with chronic disease was on Tuesday officially launched in Beijing.

Initiated by the China Association of Health Promotion and Education, the project is sponsored by Servier China, the French pharmaceutical's Chinese arm, and will be implemented by Beijing Archimedes Medical Science, a healthcare-focused IT service provider.

The project aims to improve community hospital care with the introduction of digital and personalized tools. The campaign is aimed particularly at improving healthcare and health management for chronic disease patients and seniors.

High blood pressure, diabetes, and coronary heart disease patients are the three largest patient groups in China's community hospitals, accounting for nearly one third of the total patient population.

The high blood pressure control rate among patients however is only 13.8 percent in China. For diabetes it is even lower, at 3.08 percent, according to project organizers.

China has been building a tiered medical care system since 2009. In this system large and specialist hospitals take care of complicated and severe illnesses, while community hospitals treat chronic disease and provide health-management services. It is therefore important to improve chronic disease care in community hospitals, to provide patients with better medical care and help them establish healthy lifestyles, organizers said.

The project will use mobile internet technologies and will establish health-management call centers, with the aim of enabling family doctors to conduct one-to-one, follow-up telephone interviews with patients, and provide personalized health management to those whose conditions are poorly controlled, such as those with high blood pressure, diabetes and coronary heart disease.

Patients will be able to send home test results, such as readings of blood glucose, blood pressure, and frequencies of angina attacks, to their family doctors over the phone, so that the medical professionals can give medical and lifestyle guidance online.

A competition will be held to encourage family doctors to submit cases and share their experiences, with the aim of enhancing doctors' professional skills and abilities, organizers said.

Wang Lingling, deputy secretary-general of the association, said she believes the development and application of innovative tools in community hospitals are helpful in controlling chronic disease.

Bradley Lloyd, an executive with Servier, said the company's disease care solutions in China focus on chronic disease, and is proud to take part in the project.